Just for me

Thrift shopping is not always about finding a great unique piece. Sometimes the piece finds you. My all time favourite second hand shop is in Belgium, and every time I go back home - even if it is just for a weekend - I have to stop by and have a peek. The shop has gone through a makeover in the last few months : funky wall paper, crazy chandeliers ( not for sale, unfortunately!) and their latest addition...a grandma's wardrobe full of vintage coats, hats and handbags! I was still opening the entrance door as I saw this beautiful straw-weave handbag peeking out underneath a pile of vintage leather and vinyl purses at the bottom of this treasure wardrobe. In two steps I was there and picked it up, clutching it tightly before anyone else could get their eyes or hands on it ( yes, my sweet mum-and-thrift-shop-ally included... sorry mum!). I didn't even look at the beautiful sixties coats and cloche hats, all i wanted was this bag. Funny enough, I was told by Yuku, the lovely lady that works there, that this bag had been sitting there for weeks and she had been thinking about me (she knows I'm handbag crazy) and knew I would have bought it if I had the chance to be there...and there I was. I paid and left, packed it in my suitcase and now she's here with me in excellent condition and ready to enjoy her second life in England as my new favourite bag!

A note: both mirrors and the closet in the picture are from the same shop!

Sunday Breakfast

I can't help it, but I just want to show off my balcony today. I think it looks absolutely cute with all the flowers and the little breakfast table (which is foldable, so perfect!) I am an outside person. If the sun's out I have to be outside or else it feels like a wasted day. Unfortunately I have to get used to living in a small flat, but getting to decorate the balcony makes up for it. The big tea pot is not our actual tea pot. It is my great grandmothers coffee pot, but al long as everyone can remember it has been used as a flower vase. In is standing on a little black and white tiled table that belonged to my grandma and is fact a fifties magazine rack. I now use it for my parsley and basil plants. I also love a proper sunday breakfast with boiled eggs and a croissant, so setting the table and making it look inviting and fun is part of my sunday ritual.

Silhouette Lady Summer Jacket

I am not a fashion designer but once in a while i get the fashion designing bug and i have to pull out all of my trims, sequins and fabric scraps and attacht them...to something. The victim of my itchy designer fingers was this summer jacket, bought by my sister but a size small for her. " Maybe you can transform it, do something fun with it.", she said when she left it here on her last visit. I hate stuff sitting around. These things always end up in a big "to do" bag and are out of fashion by the time i decide to work with them! Not this time, though. I locked myself up in my work room the other day, pulled out all the fabrics and trims I could get my hands on and just started adding bits to the jacket. I can only work directly on the mannequin,not on a table. I dont know why that is, I just feel like a painter with his easel and the jacket is the canvas. I am really happy with the way I transformed this piece and almost wish it was my size so I could wear it myself!

I designed the cameo lady silhouette years ago, but I keep going back to it. ( her nose isn't really crooked, it just looks like that in this photo!) I really enjoyed stepping away from the jewellery and the bags for a day and do something different. I'm thinking of doing a few tops with the same silhouette...we'll see how it goes!

Madame Lucie gets a makeover

Some ideas need time to grow. In Madame Lucie's case it needed two years. I have had this bag for more than two years and advertised it for sale several times. Nothing happened. Madame Lucie started to look sad...I hid her in the cupboard. After a while I started to ignore her completely and I was quite comfortable with it. Others took her place: sultry cairo cabaret girls, colourful matryoshka dolls and Lady Cameo, elegant as ever. Things changed after I moved and I was forced to get her out again. She looked as if she didn't care about it anymore...ready to be sent away to the charity shop or worse. I don't like to live with enemies in my flat so I decided to take her out and give her the most prominent place in my work room. Patiently she stood there week after week waiting till I would give her the attention she deserved. Last night she finally had the makeover she had been wiating for all this time and I must say, she and I are quite pleased with her new look! She's going to Camden with me later this week. ( wish me luck! )

TTV - Abandoned Boudoir

It's been a while since my last experiments with ttv photography. Through the viewfinder photos are shot with a (digital) camera through the viewfinder of a vintage camera. The shape of the viewfinder and the dust and dirt it has collected through the years add a magical and surreal effect to these photos. Last sunday I bought a vintage conway camera (again at a car boot sale!) for just 4 £. I struggled a bit to make a contraption to keep my digital camera focused on top of the conway, so by the time I was ready it was dark outside. I then tried to shoot a pictures inside the flat and this is the creepy result. Now tell me, would you think these photos were taken in a brand new home in 2009...or rather a century ago in an abandoned boudoir filled with ghosts?

Greetings from Firenze, 1939

Car boot sale season is back! The local car boot sale is only a few minutes away, a nice walk down the high street. Before the end of last season I was hunting for useful things for the flat as it still wasn't complete : a set of boring pine wood bar stools ( which we transformed into sleek french style black laquered kitchen stools), rattan chairs for the balcony and vintage ivory silk lamp shades. Now that my home is fully furnished ( I still have my eye on a beautiful four poster bed, but that will be for later) I don't really need any useful items and I can concentrate on the fun part of car boot sale hunting...weird nick-nacks and other "decorative junk". I always loved to have a wall full of pictures frames, a collection of photos and art from different era's and styles but my wall is still quite bare. Slowly slowly it is coming together, but I need a lot more! Last Sunday I found an interesting photo of a young couple. Both in their best outfit, nice hats, beautiful smiles.

The frame in green leather, looking as old as the picture itself. For just a pound, it was hard to pass it up. At home, being curious as ever, I took it out of the frame and saw a glimpse of a different live, different time...since then this photo is fascinating me. The picture was taken in Florence in 1939. Someone wrote " Betty and Enzo. To dad, with affection."

Betty looks English, and Enzo is unmistakably Italian. My parents met in Florence in the seventies, so I can imagine their story being similar to my parents'. They walked the same streets, different cultures, different languages. 1939...right before WWII. I wonder what happened to them. Did they get married? Was it just a summer love? Did the war destroy their friendship or love story...I guess I'll never know, but Betty and Enzo are more than welcome on my photo and art wall in my inspiration room aka craftroom slash dining room.

Feta stuffed ubergine rolls

Here's an easy dish I made last night with a leftover aubergine and feta cheese!

You will need:

Feta cheese

Aubergine

fresh flat leaf parsley

fresh basil leafs

oregano

Wash the aubergine and slice it vertically. sprinkle salt over the slices and let it rest for about 15 minutes. This will take the water out of the aubergine. Rinse off the salt and liquid with a paper towel after 15 minutes. Heat up your grill pan and grill the aubrgine slices (you can use a drop of olive oil in your grill pan if you like). Place them on a dish after grilling both sides. Prepare the feta filling by crumbling the feta cheese and adding the chopped up basil and parsley leaves. Knead it with you hands into a paste and place a spoonful on the aubergine slice. Roll it up and secure it with a toothpick. Sprinkle some oregano over your rolls...and your healthy and tasty dish is ready!

Baking Soda + White Vinegar I have a big box of plastic goldtone buttons that has been sitting around for a long time without being touched. The reason is their colour: even though I love their designs, the plastic goldtone makes them look horrible and cheap. I keep opening the box and looking through it, but I just can't force myself to use them in any of my projects. It was time to do something about it. I was planning to get rid of them but before that I wanted to try one of my chemical experiments on them...nothing would be lost anyway if it turned out to be a useless plan!

I went for a mix of hot water, vinegar and baking soda. I let the buttons soak overnight and lo and behold... my ugly plastic ducks had turned into pretty vintage looking swans ! I don't know how I came up with this idea, but I use these " ingredients" for cleaning and I thought it might have a discolouring effect on plastic, and so it did.

I'm keeping the box of buttons!

Before (right) and after (left)

Mirror Mirror...in the Mirror I was taking pictures of one of my mirror mirror on the wall bracelets and thought it would be fun to use the mirror theme for the picture itself. I like how this one turned out!

New Ring Design : The Spider I've been experimenting with some fine wire and black seed beads and came up with a new design for a ring, but I'm not quite sure what to think of it. Right now I am calling it the spider ring, but Queen Anne's Lace has been suggested to me and I quite liked that. It is a delicate design, the "spider legs" can be bent very easily and this could be seen as a disadvantage. Then again, you could shape the ring to your own taste and do something different like turning it into a flower. I created a poll and would like to hear your opinions, so please have a look and let me know what you think!

byhand.me spotlight by moi byhand.me allows you to create spotlights featuring your own or other artists' creations. Here's a vintage glamour themed spotlight I made today:

Etsy Finds for 2nd Feb 09 I woke up this morning under a big blanket of snow. I'm staying at my parents' house in Belgium for a couple of days but with this weather there isn't much to do around here, so why not post some of my recent finds on Etsy! I'm still decorating my flat and I'm always looking for new ideas and Etsy is the perfect place for that. As you know, I have a thing for vintage and that section of Etsy is just full of beautiful eye candy:

Vintage yellow and white round ceramic canister jar with lid from highstreetmarket

Maid of Honor Canisters from AntiqueAttic

Mid Century Gold And White Carafe from PeacockEnvy

Vintage 1960s 70s Doll Face Ice Bucket from dollsandmolls2

Vintage 1950s Lamps from bittersweetdesign

I love watching these cute birds on my balcony. They are really tiny but oh so greedy. At times I can hardly count them all, they come in groups to plunder the seeds I hung off the railing for them.

Happy Holidays!

A thank you to all my blog readers for visiting my blog in 2008 and thank you for all your lovely comments. Enjoy the holidays and see you again in 2009!

Hello from the U.K.

What are two months in a human's life? I just looked back at my blog and noticed two month have gone by in absolute silence. The funny things about this is that in these two months two of the biggest changes in my life sofar, have take place. I have finally moved to my new flat in the U.K. with all my belongings and left my family behind in Belgium. Only a week after i moved here i already had to go back home because my dear 88 year old grandma passed away. Happy versus Sad... it's an unfair battle. I know my grandma was not the kind of person to sit around and sob about things going wrong or life being sad. Even at that high age she was super active and an example to many. I felt that i needed to keep myself busy if i didn't want to sink into home sickness and melancholy and what is better than a brand new flat as an empty canvas to get your emotions under control again? Luckily my fiance' is as interested in home decor as I am but at one point it became quite extreme and i couldn't even pick a toaster and kettle for our flat without making sure it would match our flat. Ok, things have calmed down now, but i'm still trying to convince him that the spare room will be a craft room slash dining room and not the other way round! Here is our first makeover for the corridor : a handpainted diamond pattern with a vintage florentine cabinet and a vintage inspired mirror. I'll give away one secret: the frame is from Ikea, but I painted it to match the cabinet...can you tell?

Shopping for Supplies
Online shopping for supplies is so easy and i must admit that i love the fact that i can order whatever i wish for just with a few clicks while sitting in a comfortable chair. It is luxury. But there is another side of me that needs to go shopping in a more adventurous way. All year long i wait for this occassion and i have to travel 3000km for it but it is worth it. (ok, i'm not just travelling all those km just for shopping!) The action takes place in world's biggest shopping mall ( it stretches over 10 km ), the Souk of Aleppo in Syria. This medieval shopping heaven is packed with thousands of mini shops and devided in many sections (khans), there are streets with just gold shops, others with only fabrics, sweets, meat or leather and antiques.

The trick is to find your way in this crazy mishmash of shops,people and donkeys without getting hopelessly lost. What i like about these shops is that they always surprise you. That's why i do my shopping without a wish-list:i know it's impossible to find specific items when you really need them so i just go with the flow and keep my eyes open. Here you can actually enter one of these mini shops and spend the rest of the day in it. The shopkeepers are extremely helpful and have atleast 2 or more helpers that don't mind to show you box after box full of different buttons and ribbons. I know that i should never even try to ask a shopkeeper here in Europe to spend hours with me looking for the right sequins and charms! The horror! The patience is endless and often they will send out one of the helpers into the souk to other shops to get you the right item you've been looking for. Some shops are that old that their stock has become vintage and the example buttons on the boxes have faded and rusted as if they were 100 years old.
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Adventurous shopping takes a lot of time, energy and patience compared to online supply shopping, but to me it's so much more inspiring and fun than those few mouse clicks that bring them right to your doorstep!

Light Therapy
It's been a week since that horribly long journey from Aleppo to Istanbul and Belgium. More than 24 hours awake and on the way to get home again and now it seems as if i've never been away. It's funny when people tell you they went to the middle east and experienced a cultural shock, because for me it's exactly the other way round : everytime i come home from Syria i feel completely out of place and have a hard time getting used again to Belgium and its inhabitants. The cold and dark weather in the middle of summer is just one example that really makes me depressed and grumpy when i wake up in the morning. I'm not saying everything is perfect in Syria: many times our electricity was cut off and we were in the dark ( and heat) for hours and hours without a warning but then you start smiling again when the light goes on again and you hear the whole neighbourhood applaud and shout because of this "miracle". So now that i'm back i love to look at the pictures i took during the holiday for a daily energy boost, to remember the heat and the sun ( and the possible sunstroke i had when i was walking around in the desert without a hat - yes very smart, i know). Here's a selection of 5 of my so called light therapy photos :

The sun rise as seen from my balcony.

Sweet grapes in our garden, too many to eat them all!

Sergilla, the dead city : our house is surrounded by more than 700 dead cities dating from 200 to 500. Some are completely deserted and others partly inhabited by farmers.

Beehive style constructions on the road from Homs to Palmyra.

My sister posing as a modern version of Queen Zenobia in the Temple of Bel in Palmyra.

Summer Break

See you after summer!

Arm Chair

I've discovered some beautiful furniture pieces thanks to mydeco's room planner, which i blogged about a few posts ago. I found an arm chair in their catalogue which i absolutely must have : the Albert Arm Chair from Egamma. It is a combination of classy French elegance and a funky modern comic book print. I really love prints, but i do have a weak spot for comic book prints and this one is simply fabulous. At 218.99 £ it is a little bit too expensive for my taste, but nothing can stop me from dreaming about it!

On Etsy i found a few more unique gems that are really worth to be shown off:

60s Mid Century HOLLYWOOD REGENCY Floral French Vintage Chair - fabulousmess

Hollywood Regency chair redeaux - tuffetlady34

VINTAGE HOLLYWOOD REGENCY LOUIS XVI STYLE MEDALLION BACK ARM CHAIR - aquadesigns

Beauty Grace and Charm Dress by Angel Damico

My dress arrived today! Not so long ago one of Angel Damico's dresses was featured on Etsy's frontpage and i could no longer resist. This shop has been one of my favourites for a while now but i never got the chance to order anything...or better yet : i never knew what to choose because i liked them all. Then my eye was caught by this beautiful pink and blue dress and i just had to get it, no more hiding behind excuses. It was exactly the type of dress i had in mind to buy for my trip to Syria. Each year it is a big drama to organize my suitcase because what can you wear on a 45° C day in Syria visiting old monuments? Certainly not shorts and i can't see myself wearing a maxi dress climbing ruins or visiting the souks. I can combine this dress with a comfortable pair of jeans and my hot pink diamond slippers and i'm ready to go! Apart from the beautiful design by the talented Angel Damico ( so much detail to discover! ) and the stunning colours, the fit and feel of this dress are a big bonus : so soft and light as a feather as if i'm not wearing anything at all. All i can say is WOW. Go have a look a this beautiful shop now and see for yourself!